September 2017: A well earned retirement

I recently attended a retirement party for one of our caregivers who worked in the Sparrow Lab and has retired after 40 years of service at Sparrow Hospital. I met Honey Grewal back in 1989 when I was 18 years old. Honey worked in the lab I was hired into. We quickly became good friends and have remained friends over the 29 years I have been at Sparrow.
I am compelled to write this article about Honey because she was a remarkable woman a good friend with a true love of her job. She was very unique in that, in her 40 years of employment she has never called in to work a single time. On top of that, she has never been late to work a single time. That is simply remarkable. Honey was truly dedicated, not to mention blessed, in that she was able to accomplish this amazing feat. She will be missed.
On another note, Local 4911 is a year out from negotiations. Our bargaining team recently met with John Beck, a professor of Labor Relations at Michigan State University for training in collaborative style bargaining. We hope to have more training and team building opportunities over the next year leading into negotiations.

May 2017: A brighter tomorrow

Working and serving a membership in a health care facility is a unique experience with unique challenges. Sparrow Health Systems is growing by the day; soon we will be unveiling our new state of the art Herbert-Herman Cancer Center that will provide the best cancer treatment to those in our community, and those abroad.
But if the American Health Care Act goes into effect, we all know that too many Americans are at risk of losing health care coverage—not only individually but for entire families, up to a staggering number estimated to be 24 million over the next decade. Due to the number of low-income people who may become uninsured with cuts to the Medicaid programs, hospitals such as Sparrow may have to cover the cost of those in need of care who seek treatment through emergency room visits instead of having the ability to seek care with a physician.
Cuts could force many health care facilities to cut services and/or reduce staff to help compensate for the loss in Medicaid coverage due to the AHCA. The writing is on the wall, as I am seeing Sparrow attempt to restructure staff and departments that are staffed with UAW members to operate more efficiently.
At this time, no jobs have been lost, but many of our UAW Caregivers are on edge with the uncertainty that lies ahead.
On to a brighter note, I recently asked the members of Local 4911 to take a stand in solidarity for our respected Patient Sitters, as they were facing some possible restructure. To have so many of our UAW Caregivers voice their concerns and give vows of support gave me everything I needed to go back to the company and report the dissatisfaction from our members about how this vital group of Caregivers were being treated. Solidarity prevailed.
The very next morning I joined a conference call with several of Sparrow’s VPs, who informed me that there would be no restructure of the Patient Sitters and that it was all just a misunderstanding. This shows that regardless of the odds that members face, solidarity can, and will, always affect change.